Another victory for the Pre Ma Racing team at the 4 Hours of Imola; Zach Robichon 7th in GTE (+ video)

Second event of the season in the European Le Mans series (ELMS), the 4 Hours of Imola presented this Sunday saw the second victory in as many events for the Pre Ma Racing team, with its trio Louis Delétraz, Ferdinand Habsburg and Lorenzo Colombo at the controls of their Oreca-Gibson No.9 prototype.

Unlike Paul-Ricard last month, this success took longer to take shape at Imola, while one hour from the end it was rather the Panis Racing and Cool Racing teams who were vying for victory in LMP2 and the all-category level. But the numerous neutralizations (8 in total, including two presences of the Safety Car) following collisions and exits from the track leading to a lot of cars in the gravel pits have somewhat upset the hierarchy and it is with finally a little more 4 seconds ahead of the No.22 United Autosports (Hanson / Gamble / Tappy) that Delétraz / Colombo / Habsburg won under the sun at Imola.

It should be noted that Lorenzo Colombo had been penalized with two passages through the pit line at the start of the race, for stealing the start and then crossing the white line marking the end of the pit line. With this victory, Pre Ma Racing has almost double the points (50 to 27) against its closest rivals, Panis Racing, in the championship.

Cool Racing’s Oreca (driven by Nicolas Lapierre, Niklas Kruetten and Yifei Yé) completed the podium while in LMP3, victory went to another United Autosports car, the Ligier of Kay Van Berlo and Andrew Bentley.

In GTE, the chances of a new podium for Canadian Zach Robichon vanished from the first hour, when his teammate Michael Fassbender violently came into contact with the Ferrari 488 of Pierre Ehret, spun just in front of the Porsche of the Proton Competition. Returning after long repairs, the No.93 Porsche 911 RSR of the Fassbender/Robichon/Lietz trio finished 8th in the GTE.

The TF Sport team, with its Aston Martin Vantage, achieved the double in this category. The winning crew was No.69 driven by Marco Sorensen, Samuel De Haan and Omani driver Ahmad Al Harty.

For the full ranking, click here. For the best moments, see the video below. The next round of the ELMS series will again be in Italy, this time at the Monza circuit on July 3.

UPDATE: The exclusion of the results of Ferrari No.57 a few hours after the arrival of the race allows the trio Fassbender/Robichon/Liez to occupy 7th place in the official final classification of the GTE category.